RESTAURANTS ARE ALL IN THE FAMILY

Sitting at a lounge table in one of his four restaurants, Tom Fox Sr. talked about hard work and family and success-and how Al Capone's sister helped make it all possible.

The oldest of the four restaurants that bear the Fox name, at 9956 S. Western Ave. in Chicago, previously housed a deli owned by now-deceased Mafalda Capone Maritote, according to Fox. He and his wife had a pizza carryout business in the same neighborhood and sometimes swapped takeout orders with Maritote.

"On Sunday nights she'd call us up for a couple of pizzas, and she'd send us a dozen corned beef sandwiches," he said. Pizza and sandwiches had been traded for a couple of years when, in 1965, Fox got a phone call from Maritote.

"She said she wanted out and asked us to take over," Fox explained. "I said I couldn't handle that much business, and she said, `Don't worry, I'll make you an offer you can't refuse.' "

The age lines on his face reflect the late evenings and hard work that followed. The 56-year-old restaurateur looked around the dining room of his Oak Lawn restaurant, his eyes showing his pride in the results. But perhaps most telling about his appearance this day was his Warner Bros. cartoon tie, on which Tweety Bird and Bugs Bunny played tennis.

"We're a family-type restaurant," said Fox, a grandfather of eight. "We've probably got 30 booster chairs and 30 high chairs for our customers."

Family is the common thread throughout Fox's restaurants. His wife, Therese, has been there from the beginning. Their sons, Tom Jr. and Frank, daughters-in-law Pamela and Meg, and Fox's brother Ronald are integral parts of the business.

So, too, are the families of the nearly 250 employees at Fox's. Husbands, wives, sons, daughters, brothers and sisters work together to fulfill one of Fox's business goals-quality meals that even larger families can afford. And Fox is familiar with large families.

He grew up as the youngest of a family of five children at 71st and May Streets on Chicago's South Side. His experience with making pizza began when he was a teenager, working at Bernie and Bettie's at 76th and Halsted Streets.

His father, Clarence, was an electrician, and Fox was an apprentice in that trade when he and Therese moved to Chicago's Beverly neighborhood in 1962. As a couple they enjoyed Nick's Pizza at 9908 Walden Pkwy. in Chicago, and the proprietor's widow approached them about buying the business.

"It seemed like a good investment, so we moved in," said Fox, who took over the carryout business in July 1963 and changed the name to the Beverly Pizza House. "We started with four stools and two deuces (tables for two)," said Fox, who soon moved the business across the street to 9907 Walden Pkwy. because his landlord had doubled the rent.

To pay the bills for his growing young family, Fox continued to work as an electrician for 20 hours a week. He'd do that in the morning, and he also sold cars part time in the afternoon. In the evenings he'd help Therese with the pizza busines

"Without all the other jobs, we never would have made it," he said. "Those first years were very tough. It seemed like every time we got our head above the ground, we went deep in debt again."

Tom and Therese remained on Walden Parkway through the end of 1965, and then had that opportunity to relocate to the busier Western Avenue. In "The Real and Complete Story of Al Capone," author Robert J. Schoenberg described an incident involving the infamous Chicago gangster's sister, whose delicatessen then was located at 10232 S. Western Ave.: "In 1957, she charged a policeman with assault, saying he hit her when she stopped him from beating a drunk he had hauled out of a bar next door."

Such contretemps notwithstanding, Maritote later moved her deli three blocks down to a building built in 1960. It was at that location that the Foxes took Maritote's offer. For the next year and a half, they ran two businesses. The deli remained toward the back, and the pizza carryout operation moved into the front of the store, where it sits today.

The Foxes began plans to turn their pizza business into a pub that served food and drinks. In July 1967, their new landlord finally allowed them to obtain a liquor license. "Then we threw out the deli and brought in the drinks," said Therese Fox, who has supervised the Beverly pub ever since. "It was a hit, it just took off," added Tom Fox, who by 1970 was ready to expand and gave up his jobs as an electrician and car salesman.

He bought out the German Kitchen Restaurant late that year and opened Fox's Oak Lawn, at 9240 S. Cicero Ave., in 1971. Two years later, Fox decided to expand again. His brother Ronald had retired from the Air Force and needed a new career, and the two men went into business together, opening Fox's Orland Park at 9655 W. 143rd St.

In 1979, Fox tried his luck in Lemont with a theme restaurant called Fox's Beaten Path. The name referred to the trail that mules left behind along the I&M Canal. Antiques gave the place a decorative atmosphere, but that wasn't enough to save it.

"That was a million-dollar mistake," Fox admitted. "Those were tough years. Interest rates were high, and Lemont was an area that was devastated with plant closings."

The risk was much smaller when Fox opened a Fox's Pizza in the Garfield Ridge neighborhood of Chicago, at 5411 S. Harlem Ave., in 1988. It's strictly a carryout business, like the Foxes' original store on Walden Parkway. Fox estimated a "ballpark figure" for yearly revenues for all the Fox's restaurants at $9 million.

Though the business has grown, the family connection has been maintained. In her years as matriarch of the Beverly pub, Therese Fox has given a lot of young people their first jobs.

"People come here as customers and say they have a son or a daughter and can you give them a job, and we put them right on," Therese said. "I like the kids. I haven't grown up either, 'cause I like to hear all of their problems. I love every minute of it."

Among the parents to have sent their children to work at Fox's were Jack and June O'Keefe of Beverly. Six of their 13 children (Peggy, Therese, Anne, Jim, Pat and Tim) have worked at the pub. "Any time the kids are out of work and need a job, Therese will put them to work," said Jack O'Keefe, who also tended bar at the pub when he wasn't performing his usual job as an electrician.

Pat Ouimet, a 35-year-old Chicago lawyer, had his first job at the pub as well. "I have the best memories of growing up," Ouimet said. "Working at Fox's was almost like having a barbecue all the time with friends and neighbors.

"Tom and Therese are two of the most honest and ethical people I know," he added. "They always encouraged us to go on to college and get a degree. And if any kid needed help or money or advice, Tom and Therese would be there. Outside of my parents, they're two of the most important people I know."

Then there's Betty Costello, who has been a waitress for close to 23 years. A mother of seven children and grandmother of 15, Costello started waiting tables at the pub to help her family. "My children were going to Catholic school, and we needed the extra money for the tuition," said Costello, of the Chicago Lawn neighborhood, who's the mother of Judy Stankus, a manager at the Beverly shop. "Everybody who works here brings their kids here. It's always been family-oriented."

Praise for Fox's isn't just the province of present and former employees. The Illinois Restaurant Association has selected Fox's as one of 13 restaurants out of its 2,200 members to be noted for longevity and service. The honor was bestowed at the 17th annual Restaurateurs Ball held Saturday at Navy Pier in Chicago.

"Any restaurant that has enjoyed the kind of longevity that Fox's has certainly enjoys a good reputation," said Nancy Dunn, director of communications for the association. "They're obviously giving the customers what they want."

"Fox's is a good family operation," said Perrino, who owns three Home Run Inn restaurants. "It's people with pride and concern for their business, and they deserve recognition."

And Joe Aurelio, owner of the Aurelio's Pizza restaurants in Homewood and Bridgeview, described Tom Fox Sr. as a friendly competitor.

"I've known him for 35 years, and I've always had a decent business relationship," said Aurelio, who also has franchised 28 other Aurelio's Pizza restaurants. "We talk over things every now and then."

The Fox's restaurants in Oak Lawn and Orland Park have maintained posh appearances to keep up with their suburban competition. But the Beverly Pub hasn't changed for more than 25 years, blending well with the older shops and houses that make up the neighborhood. Inside, a beamed ceiling overlooks 21 mahogany-stained oak booths and a small bar with six stools. It, too, is being remodeled. A new entrance, a couple of windows and a more modern kitchen setup for the pizza operation are in the works, but most of the oak interior will remain the same.

Linda Lewkowski of Chicago's Morgan Park neighborhood has been going to Fox's Beverly Pub for 20 years.

"Fox's has got the best burger in Chicago," she said. "Their baked beans are great, and I love their pizza."

Lewkowski has another reason for liking Fox's.

"It's really romantic there," she said. "It's dark and cozy, and a great place to take your date."

Tom and Therese Fox married in 1958, and the first of their four children, Tom Jr., was born in 1960. After building their business, the Foxes moved from Chicago to Palos Park, which proved to be a conveniently central location between the Orland Park and Oak Lawn restaurants. But Therese prefers to commute to the Beverly Pub in the old neighborhood, where St. Patrick's Day finds her hosting a party of hundreds.

"This is like my house," she said. Costello, the waitress, called Therese Fox the force that keeps the family atmosphere alive at the pub. "She loves this place," Costello said. "When she dies, I think they'll wake her on the bar in a green dress."

The Oak Lawn Fox's has three dining rooms and two bars. Wood paneling and brass railings are just some of the enhancements Fox has made through the years. He also has made major investments to enlarge and equip the kitchen. He'll gladly take you on a tour of that kitchen to show off a $16,000 mixer used for the pizza dough or a $5,000 meat grinder for the Italian sausage.

"We make 5,000 pounds of pork sausage a week between the four restaurants," he said. "Ninety-eight percent of the restaurants in Chicago are buying their sausage from a distributor, and they don't know what they're getting. We know what we're getting."

"My father has always told me that when people pay a good dollar for a meal, you give them a good meal," said 34-year-old Tom Jr., one of the general managers of the Oak Lawn restaurant. "I try to instill in our staff and particularly with our chef that we should not be overly price-conscious but overly quality conscious."

Tom Jr.'s brother, Frank, 31, supervises the carryout and delivery operation in Oak Lawn. Looking much like a younger version of his father, Frank says he has been most satisfied in training people to work in the business.

"We have to take what we get and make the most of them so that we can make the best product," said Frank, who supervises 18 drivers, eight pizza makers, two cooks and six phone-order takers. On a Friday night alone, Fox's Oak Lawn makes 600 to 750 pizzas, said Frank, who, like his brother, lives in Oak Lawn.

Fox's in Orland Park, the largest of all the restaurants, is located in a converted church. It has a dining area, pub area with live entertainment and a banquet room.

"We've been in business for 21 years, and we're the oldest in Orland Park," said Ronald Fox of Orland Park. "When we first started I was putting in 120 hours a week. I worked 18- to 20-hour days, and if you shook my hand I didn't know if you were coming or going."

Fans of Fox's have encouraged Tom Sr. to expand to the west, but he has no such plans for now. He's not looking to sell, either, unless some conglomerate offered a deal he-and his family-couldn't refuse.

"It would have to be a family decision," he said. "I'd have to have some guarantee for my sons, and once you turn it over you don't know what they're going to do to the product or whether they're going to cut the service.

"We built this for our family in hopes that it would be passed on through the generations," he said. "Show me a restaurant that has been around for 30 years. There's not that many around. It's hard to stay successful and consistent. I'm pretty proud of what we've accomplished."